Evaluation Questions

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
We breifly use a nonlinear narrative in our opening sequence, this is a frequently used generic convention of thrillers. We also use the idea of extraordinary events in ordinary situations, situation being our character visiting a patient at hospital, even being the escape of the patient. By the male character having a friend or relative in hospital highlights his weakness and makes his character vulnerable.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
There are several represents several particular social groups including gender and proffession. Specifically it focuses on gender throughout the sequence, given the vulnerability of the female patient and the male dominance.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
To make a film of this genre wouldn't require much budget. There are no special effects or explosions, there are no spectacular locations. This is similar to many other thrillers such as The Dark Knight / One Hour Photo and Vertigo. This wouldn't be an Internet release or a picture house, more of a TV movie. The mise-en-scene is remarkably simialar to that of One Hour Photo. The clean and basic atmosphere gives a strange physcological sense which helps match the narrative.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
Some of the narrative may be too complex for young viewers, therefore the target audience should be young adults and above. One Hour Photo includes strong language and disturbing images which is why it has been given a 15 viewing, given that this thriller is simialar to ours we may include strong language to protray the intensity of the situations.
How did you attract/address your audience?
There are no requirements for someone to be scared, therefore I think that any light hearted viewer could be attracted to our work due to the sudden images and sounds. The use of camerawork and editing emphasises this statement. The lack of transitions gives and uneasy atmosphere, given that the viewer is aware that anything could jump onto the screen (using transitions gives a viewer time to brace and prepare). This is a generic convention, and has a strong impact. Suspense is easily created by the un obviousness of the editing and unsteady camerwork.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?
We have many weaknesses in our work, as do professional movie thrillers. Any movement shot suddenly breaks the professionalism of the camerwork due to the unsteadiness and other aspects. I feel that our thriller could be improved by using the equipment wisely and going into more depth during the planning (visiting the location to determine exact camera positions). In our group we faced a tremendous problem. Our location (Addenbrookes Hospital) encounted an outbreak of the Nora Virus, meaning that our filming could no longer take place in the uncontained enviroment of the hospital. We went over several solutions such as using a green screen in the studio, or using photoshop to portray fotage of a hospital or simply using locations around the sixth form college. Finally, we decided to take footage around the site, using the hospital bed and C-Block corridor as the corridors and wards of the hospital. We attempted to use the dolly to help enhance our footage but this requires practice and we were on a short timeline and under pressured conditions due to the sudden change to our filming location.
Using Final Cut Express we found many video filters that entirely altered the meaning of the footage, giving unrealistic white balance to shots taken of the patient and deep, rich quality to those in the corridor gives an unatural yet questionable atmosphere. Garageband didn't prove itself as useful as we originally believed. Many of the soundtracks proved themselves to lack in suspense and we felt that all the audio was too much computer generated and an uneasy atonal soundtrack with no sense of beats or rhythm would be more appropriate. However, finding sound effects in garageband helped tremendously.
Looking back to your preliminary task, what did you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
The preliminary task didn't help our planning atall, we didn't need to research for our task, not did we storyboard, therefore no techniques or practice was accomplished through it. However, this blog proved itself useful to help share and generate ideas in our planning stages. Our use of specific shots types has improved greatly. We all were fluent in identifying and recording specific shots that would emphasise certain atmospheres in our thriller. For example, the close-up of the patient through a window, had qualities of a point of view and a close-up. I feel more confident with the equipment. Practicing using the camera during our preliminary task really helped and we all gained more skills and understanding of the equipment. I feel our end product is quite sucessful in fulfilling the task.